Introduction
We recently spoke with a victim, Stacy (name changed for privacy), about their experience of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the difficulties they faced when seeking help from local agencies.
Their story offers valuable insight into the real impact of ASB and highlights where agency responses can be strengthened to better support victims.
Please note: This account includes discussion around sensitive subjects like suicidal ideation, which may be distressing to some individuals.
Table of contents
Overview of Stacy’s case
Stacy and her family have been experiencing anti-social behaviour from her neighbour for over four years. Over time, this has escalated, and behaviours have included:
- Knocking Stacy’s bins over and stapling messages to their fence.
- Blocking Stacy’s driveway for hours.
- Harassing Stacy’s daughter by circling her car with a friend whilst she was inside of it so that she could not leave to go into her house.
- Intimidation and antagonistic behaviour e.g. recording the family, including their daughter, coming home from school/work every day for three weeks from his van whilst pointing and laughing.
- Making offensive hand gestures towards Stacy’s house whenever they go past.
- Making false allegations to Stacy’s husband and son’s work.
- Vehicle repairs e.g. full vehicle strip downs, excessive noise, sparks from tools causing damage to Stacy’s car.
- Boasting to another neighbour about getting Stacy’s husband ‘done’.
- Racial abuse towards Stacy’s husband including saying he had “killed people in Afghanistan like him”.
If you’re struggling with anti-social behaviour, find advice on different types of ASB on our Victim’s Hub.
What happened when they reported this to agencies?
Stacy’s first port of call was to report these incidents to her housing association via email. However, as Stacy was working for the housing association at the time, the housing team leader approached her in work and said that they could not accept her report as it was a ‘conflict of interest’. Stacy felt like her work was competing with her rights as a tenant:
“Just because I work for you, doesn’t mean that deflects my rights as a tenant.”
Nonetheless, Stacy followed local processes:
“They asked me to get as much evidence as you can. We’ve provided everything they’ve asked for. We’ve followed the housing policies and procedures.”
At this point, Stacy was grateful that these agencies were “on board”. However, when Stacy felt that little to no action was taken, she began to feel let down:
“It’s almost like they’ve encouraged us to get such evidence because of the promises they’ve made saying they will get to the bottom of it. They will sort this out. If they have to, they’ll get an injunction.”
Stacy would also try and pursue an ASB Case Review, but this application was declined.
Stacy then felt trapped in limbo as she states:
“The housing waits for the police to take action, and the police wait for the housing.”
Stacy points out that regardless of whether police take action, the housing association have a duty to address tenancy breaches.
After repeated incidents of ASB and little effective action from agencies, tensions continued to rise. One day, when their daughter came home upset after being filmed by the neighbour, Stacy’s husband confronted him, telling him to stop recording his wife and daughter and calling him a “f*cking twat.” The neighbour, who was already filming, used this footage to make a report to the police against Stacy’s husband.
Police would serve Stacy’s husband a section 5 and tenancy warning:
“It’s really sad because they didn’t take into account the three weeks of me emailing the police and housing begging for help.”
It would be the Out of Court Officer that would encourage them to make a complaint to the police force professional standards department.
Stacy would go on to do just this, as well as complaining to the Housing Ombudsman given the way both agencies were handling her case.
The Housing Ombudsman would uphold her complaint and find failings on the part of the housing association when dealing with Stacy’s reports of ASB and complaint handling.
Stacy’s housing association would then admit to her that they had not been recording all of her reports/emails on their system for the last 12 months.
Stacy said:
“That lack of action just further embroiled the neighbour to continue his behaviour.”
Stacy would continue to wait for action to be taken, with her housing association asking for 28 days to implement actions. Stacy would wait 56 days and states she began to give up hope.
“During that whole process, there’s still all these incidents happening.”
Meanwhile, Stacy states she was open to receiving a mutual Community Protection Warning (CPW):
“The fair thing for the housing or police to do would be to serve us both a Community Protection Warning.”
“Not only is it challenging and putting up with the behaviour of the neighbour, it’s challenging each agency to enforce their own policies and procedures. I shouldn’t, as a tenant, be having to tell them how to do their job.”
The impact
The impact of these situations sadly left Stacy feeling suicidal.
“I’m obviously here to tell the story, but it wasn’t just as a result of his behaviour and what we were subject to. This onus was also on the housing and the police for failing to recognise the harassment, the alarm, the antagonizing distress that we were going through.”
“It affected my relationship with my husband, with my daughter. There would be occasions where I couldn’t stay here and had to go and stay at my mums.”
“It’s a topic that people think, unless you’ve got the evidence, we can’t do anything. But actually, sometimes you just need to look at the repeat pattern of people’s behaviour and the impact it has on people’s lives.”
Thankfully, Stacy reached out to her GP and was referred to therapy, which she says has helped.
“We still have a long way to go, but I’m sure that if I continue to challenge, that we will see justice.”
If you are being impacted by anti-social behaviour, please make sure to reach out to services for emotional support.
Conclusion
Stacy’s case is an example of not only the impact that ASB can have, but also the impact that agencies can have on victims when they do not act, or do not provide early intervention.